the clinton campaign barely did oppo research on him and still relatively cruised to victory.

in a general election...he would have been absolutely bloodied.

what do they think was gonna happen when repubs showed clips of him regularly singing the praises of authoritarian fidel castro?

what about repubs running non-stop ads tying him to the brutal poverty, failed economy, and dissolved democracy of 'socialist' venezuela?

what about when republicans harped on the current fbi investigation into his wife?

how was he gonna get people to support his fiscal policy and stance against corruption when repubs run ads about how his wife bankrupted a financially solvent college with a shady real estate deal where she intentionally falsified donor financial info?

how was he gonna persuade voters to support medicare for all when repubs run ads about how it failed in his own home state?

how would he be able to attack trump for not showing his taxes when bernie refused to show his (except for one inconsequential year)?

bernie never really had to deal with being put through the political fire.

he could have conceivably been crushed in 2016 once repub super pacs went into high gear.